New Las Palmas manager Diego Martinez could scarcely have wished for a better start to life in the job, after his side ended a winless run in La Liga dating back to February, and extending across 23 games. It lifted them above opponents Valencia and off the bottom of the table.
The Canary Islanders have been in free fall more or less since they appeared to enter the European race last January, but the recipe for success has lost a number of key ingredients. Starting the season, despite their recruitment, going through any list of online bookmakers would have told you that they are facing an uphill task this year. Now Sevilla manager Garcia Pimienta had built a side to play possession football with a high line, which required precise coordination and the right players.
With Garcia Pimienta gone, Luis Carrion took over a side and made them a little less idiosyncratic, and a little more direct, but could not inspire the turnaround needed, despite being in all of their games. That perhaps is the biggest frustration for the islanders: Las Palmas have quality, but struggle to make it count on the scoreboard.
This summer Las Palmas lost Saul Coco, Sergi Cardona, Munir El Haddadi, and exiled goalkeeper Alvaro Valles, but crucially managed to hold on to Alberto Moleiro and Mika Marmol. Jasper Cillessen remains a quality shot-stopper, while Scott Mckenna, Oli McBurnie, Jaime Mata and Alex Munoz have added a much more physical aspect to the side. Loanees Adnan Januzaj and Fabio Silva are supposed to be the creativity.
The extra physicality will be utilised by Martinez, who will look to speed up the game, and ensure his side do not lose the battle in the middle of the pitch either. On the other hand, Marmol and captain Kirian Rodriguez are at their best when given time to pick apart the opposition, and bypassing them would not play to their strengths.
Ultimately Martinez has experience of a relegation battle, with differing results in charge of Granada and Espanyol. The key factor will likely be goals – McBurnie, Mata, Sandro Ramirez and Marc Cardona all have their uses up front, but in recent years, goals have not been one of them. Januzaj, Silva, Moleiro and Kirian could all contribute from further back, but the former two are not famed for their consistency either.
If Martinez does want to speed up the game, he will have to work out a way of restoring Las Palmas’ defensive solidity of the first half of last season using a different idea, and hoping he can either inspire his forwards, or find a new one in January. Just as important as the work Martinez will do, none of the seven other teams in the bottom half of La Liga have a reliable source of goals at the moment either. Las Palmas will probably have to outperform one of Alaves, Getafe, Espanyol or Valencia to stay up though, all of which are more established La Liga sides, even if Los Azulones only came up this season.